


Diaspora

by AntonSweetie



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, linked universe au - Fandom
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Linked Universe, Linked Universe AU, LinkedUniverse, Sky (Linked Universe) - Freeform, Wild (Linked Universe) - Freeform, done for weekly writing prompt on the discord!, i love these two so much, prompt was 'unlikely friendship'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 05:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18423927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntonSweetie/pseuds/AntonSweetie
Summary: Sky and Wild - as different as they seem - do share one thing in common. Both of them are so far that their voices can't reach the others. [LinkedUniverse AU]





	Diaspora

Hyrule was ancient. Ancient beyond imagining for any of the heroes - Wild especially. His land had its own ancient history, but everyone else was on a scale that stretched even further back from that. They were from before even the Sheika race who made the Guardians animate which, by Wild’s standards, was nearly impossible to imagine.

It was like the others weren’t even from the same universe, never mind the same world.

His ribs squirmed into knots at the thought of that. To everyone else, he was not only more savage, but like another race of being. The only thing linking them all together was the Master Sword and even that he felt out of place with. To him, it was just another tool in his arsenal that was slightly more useful than anything else he pried off of monster bodies. Unlike the sword carried by Sky or the ones the others spoke about, his broke. “Ran out of energy” if he was being technical, but broke nonetheless.

He was an outlier. An outsider, even.

He was wrong. Plain and simple.

Soft, yet obvious, footsteps alerted Wild to one of his companions joining him. "Is everything alright?" Sky’s voice held a unique tilt, he found. One that he didn’t mind. Everyone’s voices held their own quirks, accents almost, but Sky’s was the most uplifting of them all. He sat down next to Wild with a light tilt of his head.

"Hm. Kind of." Wild gave a half-hearted shrug of one shoulder. He had hoped that the sheer cliff face he perched himself on would deter the rest of the others from bothering him. Apparently it didn’t work on someone who lived in floating cities above the clouds. Cliffs were normal to him. "It’s just…" Terrible. Lonely. Confusing. "Amazing how many different eras everyone’s from. It gives me a lot to think about."

Sky leaned back on his hands, legs kicking over the edge. "Yeah, I get that. Everyone feels so far away sometimes. It’s hard to imagine how the world can change so much." He looked back at Wild with a sheepish grin. "I mean, I know that the surface exists, but it’s still… well, as you put it, amazing to think about the fact that you all grew up on the surface. And one of you surrounded by nothing but water! It’s baffling and awe-inspiring."

"I guess that’s a way of putting it."

"Wild?"

"Never mind." He pulled his legs closer to his chest, eyes vacantly staring out over the expanse. They weren’t in his Hyrule, so it didn’t much matter if he didn’t recognize any of the landmasses. They would all change eventually anyway. Mountains eroded into hills, volcanoes calmed into mountains, streams carved away into rivers, the land itself evolved over time. Each of them only knew their Hyrule, even though it seemed everyone else’s at least vaguely seemed alike.

His was a wasteland. Lovely, beautiful, serene, but a wasteland. He could count on one hand the Hylian settlements, and even that greatly outnumbered any of the other race’s settlements.

No one would want to see his Hyrule.

"You know," Sky spoke up, clearing his throat as he did so. "For all our similarities, it’s… difficult to accept some things."

Wild picked up his head, his void-yet-confused expression making the other stutter and continue.

"What I mean is, it’s hard to be outside of their time." Sky explained, "To you all, I’m barely a legend. I’m not even a story told in fairy tales. It’s like me and Zelda and all of Skyloft never even existed." His eyes, usually as soft as a cloudless sky turned darker while he drew endless spirals into the dirt. "Everyone else has history that connects somehow. They can trace back, even if it’s just fairy tales. But… I’m not there. Sometimes I wonder--"

"If I even belong."

Sky glanced up, gaze locking with Wild’s. "How did you…?"

"I get it." The newest hero tugged on his dark grey cloak and drew it tighter around himself. "I do. Not in the same way but… I get it." The soft cotton was a reminder of home, of a land filled with nothing but the strength of nature. A land where he was only ever with his thoughts and his empty memories. "I don’t exist to them either. Like you said. They can all connect somehow. They have similar legends or places they recognize or ways they can trace forward and backward. I… I don’t. I don’t have anything. The farthest back I can go doesn’t even _exist_ for you guys and that’s a huge stretch. You’re so far fairy tales don’t reach you; I’m so far fairy tales don’t reach them."

The warm updraft coming over the cliffs tickled Sky’s cheeks and caressed Wild’s hair. It chased away the chill of their thoughts, and replaced it with something else. Not quite hope, not quite happiness, but something like itself: free and loved by the sun.

Sky’s shoulder gently knocked into Wild’s, his head tapping into the other hero’s. "But you’re not alone anymore. Not just because you can rely on everyone else now, but because I’m here too." He gave a smile as he drew back, letting his hand rest on Wild’s shoulder. "We’re both far from home, in more ways than one. I mean, everyone else is too, not to ignore what they’ve been through but we’re far from time too. Not-- Not leader Time-- Like, you know what I mean? Our time. Lower case t. Does that make sense?"

"Sky, I get it." Wild snorted in amusement, his hood flopping back in the wind. "I know what you mean. Thanks."

"Good." With a small hum, Sky stood up and brushed himself off. "Whenever you’re ready, please come back. Last I checked, Hyrule was trying to make dinner and I kind of remember him saying something about how you wouldn’t mind him using your Goron spice."

Wild scrambled upright, cursing under his breath and darting back towards camp. His grey cloak flapped frantically into the shadows of the treeline. One it was far enough away, Sky let himself laugh quietly. It was good to see Wild active again. Even if it was because of a little white lie. But Wild would find out soon enough that Hyrule hadn’t even looked at the cooking pot because of Twilight demanding he not touch anything. 

"Wild! Wait up!" He shouted, smiling the entire time he headed back to camp. They may not have legends to bond them together, but they had each other. They _all_ had each other. Master Sword or no, everyone was connected. Even if their voices got lost in the massive expanse of time, their souls would always find their way to connect again.

Time may silence their memories, but the soul never forgot.


End file.
